Black Lives and Racial Justice Matter Every Day

A message of support for Black lives and racial justice from the HEFN Team

A Message of Support for Black Lives and Racial Justice From the HEFN Team

HEFN stands in solidarity with the call for justice for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor (who would have been 27 years old today) and Ahmaud Arbery and calls for action in support of the Movement for Black Lives.

We are in pain over the recent and long history of murders of Black and Brown people due to racism and systems of white supremacy and are sending you love and care in these difficult times.

A couple of months ago as the reality of the COVID-19 crisis settled in, it was no surprise to the many of us that have worked to eliminate the disproportionate impacts of toxics, pollution and other causes of health disparities that Black and Brown people are experiencing worse health outcomes due to COVID-19.

We are dismayed and angry as we witness and grapple with not only the unjust impacts of COVID on Black and Brown lives, but also the horrifying 8 minutes and 46 seconds leading up to George Floyd’s death. How engrained are the systems of white supremacy in our culture that a white woman in Central Park could use them to threaten Christian Cooper simply for #BirdingWhileBlack?

But as we watch the throngs of people taking action in the streets, creating signs and art to breathe life into the movement for Black lives and racial justice, we have hope. Maybe this time will be different. Maybe we will have accountability. Maybe we can create NEW systems out of the calls for criminal justice reform and for racial justice.

And in the HEFN community, we have the power and the responsibility to take action to support the movements calling for these reforms. Below are several resources to support opportunities to be a funder ally for Black lives and racial justice every day.

This is our moment to focus our energies and ensure that HEFN’s mission to mobilize philanthropy to accelerate solutions for environmental health and justice is achieved.

In solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives,

Ansje Miller, Executive Director, on behalf of the HEFN Team

Webinars

Mental Health and Wellness: HEFN co-chair Jalonne L. White-Newsome hosted The Kresge Foundation’s “Mental Health and Wellness: Resilience Begins with Me!” program for May’s Mental Health Awareness Month, sharing, “At this time, the importance of HEALTH–physical, mental, and spiritual—is essential.”
- Video Version: “Kresge Foundation Mental Health and Wellness: Resilience Begins with Me”
- Audio Version: “Kresge Foundation Mental Health and Wellness: Resilience Begins with Me”

Action and Communications

Environmental Groups Stand in Solidarity with Movement for Black Lives Demands/Week of Action.
Funders for Justice, A national network of funders increasing resources to grassroots organizations addressing the intersection of racial justice, gender justice, community safety, and policing.
Messaging This Moment: Mobilizing Our Base and Persuading the Middle on Policing, Protest and Racial, Messaging Guide (Race-Class Narrative Action and ASO Communications)
Community Conversation – How Foundations and Nonprofits Can Communicate About Racial Injustice, The Communications Network, Responding to Racial Injustice Virtual Roundtable.
Working document for scaffolding anti-racism resources. Created by Princeton Theological Seminary graduate students to facilitate growth for white people to become allies, and eventually accomplices for anti-racist work.

Resources on the Links Between Climate Action, the Energy Transition, and Racial Justice

Jacqueline Patterson, ColorLines, ‘Hold My Earrings’: Black Women Lead on Systemic Solutions in the COVID-19 Pandemic and Beyond

Somini Sengupta, The New York Times, Read Up On the Links Between Racism and the Environment

Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, The Washington Post. I’m a Black Climate Scientist: Racism Derails Our Efforts to Save the Planet.

Michael Brune, Sierra Club Blog, What Love Looks Like in Public.

Steven Lacey, Greentech Media. Breathing While Black: Structural Racism, Coronavirus and Pollution are Part of the Same Story. (Podcast)

Inside Climate News, As Protests Rage Over George Floyd’s Death, Climate Activists Embrace Racial Justice.

PBS, Freedom to Breathe: Social Justice is Climate Justice (Video).

Marianne Lavelle, Inside Climate News, Besieged by Protesters Demanding Racial Justice, Trump Signs Order Waiving Environmental Safeguards

Julian Brave NoiseCat, The Nation, How to Survive an Apocalypse and Keep Dreaming

Michael Brune, Sierra Club Blog. From Outrage to Justice.

Carolyn Finney, The Guardian. The Perils of Being Black in Public.

Mary Annaise Heglar, Guernica. After the Storm.

Thomas Friedman, The New York Times, How We Broke the Planet

Yessenia Funes, Earther. Pollution Is Racial Violence

Additional Reading

Hot & Bothered: Why Defunding the Police is Key to Just Transition, with J. Mijin Cha, Dissent Magazine, June 4, 2020.
Black Environmentalists Talk About Climate and Anti-Racism, The New York Times, June 2, 2020.
Public Health Experts Say the Pandemic Is Exactly Why Protests Must Continue, Slate, June 2, 2020.
Responding to protests, green groups reckon with a racist past, Grist, June 2, 2020.
Rep. Barbara Lee proposes racial healing and truth commission amid pandemic, protests, San Francisco Chronicle. Introduction of legislation by Congresswoman Barbara Lee Deb Haaland establishing a Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Commission to examine the effects of slavery and racism against people of color, on American history, and its impact on laws and policies in effect today. June 1, 2020.
Maintaining Professionalism In The Age of Black Death Is….A Lot, Medium, May 28, 2020.
Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations and Global Environmental Discourse study, PLOS ONE, May 27, 2020.
America is Burning: White People What is Your Move? HEFN GivingInSight blog post by Vanessa Daniel, Groundswell Fund, originally published Sept. 14, 2017, and tragically still relevant.
M4BL Week of Action In Defense of Black Lives, June 1-7, 2020.

HEFN Member Statements in Support of Racial Justice

As You Sow Foundation

California Endowment

California Wellness Foundation

ClimateWorks Foundation

The Heinz Endowments

Joyce Foundation

Kresge Foundation

Liberty Hill Foundation

Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

Rockefeller Brothers Fund

W.K. Kellogg Foundation

Wallace Global Fund

Water Foundation

William Penn Foundation

Recommended Reading

Advancing Racial Equity in Philanthropy: A Scan of Philanthropy-Serving Organizations, a United Philanthropy Forum report on regional and national philanthropy-serving organizations’ current work and future needs to advance racial equity in philanthropy.
Awake to Woke to Work: Building a Race Equity Culture, ProInspire report outlining seven levers for institutional action towards a culture of race equity.
Choir Book: A Framework for Social Justice Philanthropy social justice philanthropic praxis guide created by the Justice Funders.
Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist Multicultural Organization, Association of Education Service Agencies (aesa.us)
Guidestar DEI and Demographic Data, knowledge base of information on nonprofit organization’s staff and leadership race and ethnicity identity, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, and diversity strategies in Nonprofit Profiles.
How Racism Makes Us Sick TED Talk by David R. Williams, PhD, MPH, Norman Professor of Public Health, Harvard University T. H. Chan School of Public Health and Professor of African and African American Studies and of Sociology at Harvard University, Harvard University Public Health.
Power Moves, National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy self-assessment toolkit/guide for equity and justice.
Putting Racism on the Table Video Series, Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers videos.
Racial equity: Not something you do, article by Dr. Yanique Redwood, Consumer Health Foundation.
Race Forward’s Building Racial Equity series, collection of interactive trainings for those who wish to sharpen their skills and strategies to address structural racism and advance racial equity.
Starting the Conversation: Using a Gender Lens in Your Grantmaking, funder guide from Philanthropy New York’s Funders for Gender Equity group.
Summary of Stages of Racial Identity Development, Racial Equity Tools (racialequitytools.org)
Tools for Advancing DEI, D5 Coalition website resources from a multi-year project focused on advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion in philanthropy.